1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wireless communication device, a program, a wireless communication method, and a wireless communication system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, wireless communication systems with various specifications have been proposed. Each wireless communication system is used for applications according to communication speed. For example, Bluetooth (registered trademark) is used for audio applications running at 1 Mbps or less, and ZigBee defined by IEEE802.15.4 is used for communication between a remote controller or a mouse and a control target device. Further, a wireless local area network (LAN) is used for IP data communication between personal computers (PC), and an ultra wideband wireless communication system is used for information communication at 100 Mbps or more, for example, communication of high resolution image information.
Given this, in some cases, one wireless communication device is required to include a structure that is compatible with a plurality of wireless communication systems. For example, a set top box is required to include a structure that is compatible with both a system for transmitting image information to a display device, and a system for receiving commands such as channel selection from a remote controller. As a result, cost may be increased or the wireless communication device may have to be made larger.
Meanwhile, a method is also conceivable in which a wireless communication device including a structure that is compatible with one wireless communication system performs communication relating to a plurality of applications using the wireless communication system. For example, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. JP-A-2006-238548 describes a technology in which a wireless communication device compatible with a wireless USB forms a wireless USB network with a plurality of wireless communication devices compatible with applications like a display device or a digital camera. In this technology, the devices perform communication with each other.
Note that the above-described wireless USB conforms to the WiMedia Distributed MAC standard. It is specified in the standard that a super frame including a beacon period and a data transmission region is set at a predetermined cycle. Further, according to the standard, each wireless communication device makes a communication reservation in the beacon period, before performing communication in the data transmission region.